Anyone who has built a machine using the M.2 SSD would know what a pain dealing with the M.2 screw is. It is incredibly small for the screwdriver which is perfectly fine for the rest of the PC and heaven forbid if you ever drop it to the floor, there is a slim chance that you will ever find it. The screw is certainly the worst part about the M.2.
Anyone who has dealt with this nuisance must be thinking that there could be a better way around this. The good news is that yes there is. MSI has just debuted the “Screwless M.2 Shield Frozr” – a feature for its Socket AM5 motherboards. The use was demonstrated by MSI during its live stream at Computex back in May, however, there wasn’t much clarity on its use since the presenter was having some difficulty with it.
Some leaked images have been shared by chi11eddog, who appears to be a leakster occasionally. These images help to better understand the feature and how it works. One of these pictures seems to have been taken from MSI motherboard’s product page while the other one appears to be a snippet from a manual. There is a third picture too which looks like an industrial diagram.
From the looks of it, this appears to be a whole mount-and-heatsink combo setup since the mount will only work properly if the heatsink is in its place. Basically, the M.2 SSD will be installed around a stationery peg, after which you will have to snap a few pegs on the heatsink, fixing it into the bracket around the M.2 socket. Once done, you will have to pop the retention peg out of the socket and into the heat sink’s other end.
M.2 SSDs don’t require a lot of mounting pressure like the CPU heatsinks, so they will work fine without the need for screws to hold them. The heatsink used here looks sturdy enough. Though we wish it could have been made better with a few fins and ridges on the overall surface area. While standing, the top of the heatsink is just a flat chunk of anodized aluminum which, from the looks of it, doesn’t seem like it can manage to dissipate all the heat.
According to Chi11eddog, the design is going to come on the MSI Socket AM5 motherboards with X670 and B650 chipsets and is expected for others too. It is still patent-pending so other vendors might try out their luck too with their own designs.
Guess what is this🧐🧐🧐
the new way to install heatsink on M.2MSI Screwless M.2 Shield Frozr + EZ M.2 Clips = true screwless M.2 installation? pic.twitter.com/jyNB2Cxy8j
— chi11eddog (@g01d3nm4ng0) July 16, 2022